


Does a rival count as a hobby?

by MagpieWords



Series: AUgust 2020 - Magpiewords [18]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Professional Rivals, Competition, Dog BB-8, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, M/M, This was supposed to be crack, how did it become romantic coffee metaphors?, latte art, rival coffee shops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26230039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieWords/pseuds/MagpieWords
Summary: “Call me if you’d like to work for a coffee shop that’ll really understand your potential.”Rey stared at the card before looking back at Kyle. “Is coffee potential supposed to mean something to me?”
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: AUgust 2020 - Magpiewords [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860265
Comments: 7
Kudos: 23
Collections: AUgust 2020





	Does a rival count as a hobby?

**Author's Note:**

> i literally cannot believe im writing this ship. my sister was a huge support all through this au challenge, so this is my thank you to her - her one request is my notp. Incredible. How dare this fic become so fun.
> 
> Is this OOC? I literally do not know, I'm not even in this fandom beyond the general appreciation of a popular culture movie. How did this happen to me?

Finn was the first to notice that the ‘for rent’ sign came down because Finn was usually the first to notice most things. It wasn’t that Rey and Poe we’re perceptive, but Poe had a tendency to get lost in his work and… okay, Rey maybe wasn’t very perceptive.

“I hope it’s a pet shop,” Poe speculated on their break. They usually occupied the back corner booth, but today they were outside so BB could get some fresh air. She barked happily, delivering a tennis ball back to Poe.

“I bet you it’s one of those loan shark places. Or a pawn shop. I saw them come in with a bunch of black paint the other day.”

“No way,” Rey said, “in this part of town? The building manager would never agree to a place like that. Even if he did, Mrs. Organa would never let that happen next to her shop.”

Finn shrugged. “Why the black paint then?”

“Could be a front. They tell the building manager one thing and become something else.”

“You’re both thinking way too negatively,” Rey stood, offering at hand to help her friends up. “New neighbors mean new friends.”

Poe and Finn didn’t look convinced, but there wasn’t much time to argue further as a customer paced outside their own storefront. Resistance was a small enough coffee shop that when the group of them took a break, the shop just closed for fifteen minutes. Most of their regulars didn’t mind, but it was best not to keep anyone waiting too long.

The rest of the day passed without much excitement from the new neighbors, but as the week continued, the space next door started taking shape. The building itself was here long before Resistance moved into this part of town, and the two units it was composed of had, long ago, been one large space. It was an odd design choice, separating them by the type of half wall, half glass that one could imagine in a vintage diner, but it had always made Resistance feel bigger than the floorspace accounted for.

And now, that odd design choice was perfect for scouting out the new shop.

“They’ve got some minimalist art up on the black walls. I’m changing my guess to a clothing boutique.” 

“Oh, that’d be good for business. Suburban moms always want lattes while they shop,” Rey said, as she finished pouring the foam into a latte for a suburban mom standing in the shop. The woman shrugged as Rey handed her the drink, not denying and therefore confirming that stereotype.

“That’s art? Are we sure?” Finn leaned over the counter, squinting into the other shop.

“Don’t look so suspicious!” Poe pulled him back. “Last time the prep one caught me staring at him, I was pretty sure his glare could have melted the glass between the shops.”

“Prep one?” Rey asked.

“Oh, you were off that day.” Finn slid a tray of scones into the display counter. “We finally saw people next door. One guy’s got red hair with enough gel to be a fire hazard. He was wearing a suit when they were painting, which seemed…” He struggled for a word that wasn’t unkind. “Like a reckless commitment to aesthetic.”

“Which I can respect, even if it’s not my aesthetic.” Poe chimed in. The way they could share sentences together, picking up right after one finished in a perfect flow, always made Rey jealous and joyful in equal parts. Her friends being happy made her happy, yet she couldn’t help but wish she had something like that happiness for herself. “And then the other one is just all black everything. Long stringy hair, jeans in this heatwave, I think even his socks were black.”

“Well, black socks aren’t weird.” Rey lifted her leg, her own blacks socks peeking above her beat up high tops.

“But next to prep guy? Goth guy is something else.”

Rey snickered. Those probably weren’t the nicest names for new neighbors/potential new friends, but they sounded accurate. 

“Weird art doesn’t make it any less of a mafia front.” Finn concluded, heading back to the kitchen as another oven timer went off. Rey could smell the secret Resistance recipe chocolate cake and, despite wanting business to do well, she hoped they didn’t sell every piece of it.

“Oh, so they’ve graduated from pawn shop to mafia?” Poe called after him.

The next day, Rey got to see the goth one for herself. When Poe was right, he was really right. “He’s taking measurements. Custom furniture could mean it’s a gallery?”

“Maybe it’s a furniture shop?”

“The prep one’s been doing all this mechanical installation– food grade stuff,” Finn clarified, and he would know. “That’s too fancy for a furniture shop.”

“I hope it’s not a restaurant.”

“No,” Finn put a hand on Poe’s shoulder, rubbing away the tension starting to form there. “That’d be a stupid business move. Way too much competition when we’re so well established. They’re probably selling snacks on the side. Maybe it’s a goth beauty parlor? Or one of those micro movie theatres like that one we went to last weekend.”

A few days later, there was a crash followed by a stream of curses from next door. The Resistance trio peered through the glass, watching the goth one literally flip a table over.

“Those tables kind of look like massage tables?” Finn speculated.

It only took one afternoon for a countertop to be installed. Poe had a late shift and Rey dragged him over the second he set foot in the shop. “Look at that espresso machine! That’s a threat!”

“Oh yeah, we don’t have anything like that.”

BB whined at Poe’s feet and he idly scratched between her ears.

“Guys chill,” Finn’s shift was nearly over as he took another batch of scones to the display case. “It’s just an espresso machine. Plenty other shops have espresso. It won't be as good as ours. Besides, maybe it’s just for employees. They’re not going to be a coffee shop.”

“Well, their employees are next to a coffee shop!” Rey protested. “They should come here on their breaks!”

Finn just shook his head, repeating himself for his own reassurance just as much as he meant to reassure the rest of the team. “They’re not a coffee shop.”

* * *

It was Friday afternoon when goth and prep were both standing outside. A large delivery box came and the prep one got on a ladder, hanging a matte black sign above the shop door. It wasn’t visible from inside Resistance, so the trio went outside to see the big reveal.

“No way,” Finn’s voice was only a whisper, as though what he was seeing was too impossible to believe. It was still loud enough to get the attention of their competition, neither of whom seemed remotely impressed by the appearance of their neighbors. The prep one seemed to piece together the meaning of their expressions first, and had the audacity to smirk.

Rey couldn’t help it, an anger she couldn’t explain rushing up to defend the place that had become her second home. She stormed up to their neighbors, but the prep one was still stepping off the ladder, so the goth one would have to be her target. She was shorter than he was, but that didn’t matter. Her lack of hesitation to get in his face seemed to startle him enough.

“You can’t just put a coffee shop next to a coffee shop!”

“Technically, Cryo Coffee is a high end beverage experience specializing in nitrogen brews,” the prep one explained, while the goth one just gawked at Rey, “while Resistance is a charity case.”

“We’re a non-profit, asshole!” Poe lunged forward but Finn held him back.

“Seriously,” Finn tried, “you can’t put your store anywhere else? It’s just bad business, you’d have a competition free market in almost any other retail lot in this part of town. Besides, Takodona Drive is only walking distance for retirees and they’re not going to want cold brew. That skews to a younger demographic, so I think there’s an open space just a few blocks–”

“We’re not interested in demographics and we’re not interested in another part of town.” Rey frowned up at the goth one. His voice sounded like he didn’t even drink coffee, just swallowed down the grounds. “We put the time and effort into this space. It’s ours.”

“You think we haven’t put time and effort into our space?”

The goth one gave Rey a quick look over, his vaguely angered expression twitching towards something that could be called curiosity, before he turned to look back at Resistance. He smirked, curiosity replaced by callousness. “No, actually, I don’t.”

“Well actually,” she paused to look at his stupid fancy metal name tag on his stupid fancy black apron. “Kylo? Your name is Kylo and you started a place called Cryo?” Rey’s tough facade broke and she burst into laughter. “That’s so stupid!”

“It was a misprint!” Kylo shouted, “It’s supposed to say Kyle but–”

“The goth one’s name is Kyle? Oh that’s excellent.” Finn found himself giggling with Rey. None of them were about to be bullied out of their business by someone named Kyle.

“If he’s the goth one, what have you been calling me?” The ladder had been folded away and the redheaded looked, for one moment, so honestly curious about his own image that his nickname had never felt more fitting.

“The prep one,” the trio said, nearly in unison before bursting out into more laughter, even Poe breaking away from his irritation with their competition.

“That sounds about as unoriginal as your institute’s flavor palettes.”

The laughter stopped immediately. “You take that back,” Rey said, feeling more scandalized than she probably needed to be over coffee. But Resistance was more than just coffee, it was knowing the difference between forcing yourself awake with caffeine and actually enjoying a warm drink. It was learning that food was about more than survival, that life could be about more than just living. It could be about thriving. It could be about love. Coffee was a love language.

Oh wow, Rey really needed a hobby outside of work.

The prep one straightened his suit and Rey hoped he spilled non-dairy creamer on it. “Well, my name is Hux. I’m funding this operation and greatly look forward to running your business into the ground.”

“Oh yeah? Well I look forward to running you into the– wait, no, let me try again. You’ll be coffee grounds when we’re done running you– no, that still doesn’t work.” Poe cursed softly under his breath before shouting, “I bet your cold brew tastes like cement!”

“Got ‘em, babe.” Finn offered as a condolence, patting Poe on the shoulder. Hux hadn’t bothered to pay attention, opening the door to Cryo Coffee and letting it slam behind him as he flipped on their neon ‘open’ sign.

Rey thought a neon sign for Resistance could be nice. It was hard for customers to find them when it rained. She might pitch the idea to Mrs. Organa at their next franchise meeting.

Rey was distracted from her musings by a business card thrust in her face. It was matte black, probably more expensive than her phone bill, and simply said Cryo Coffee with a number on it.

“Call me if you’d like to work for a coffee shop that’ll really understand your potential.” 

Rey stared at the card before looking back at Kyle. “Is coffee potential supposed to mean something to me?” Finn started cracking up again behind her.

“Ben! Come on, we’ve already got a mobile order!”

Mobile orders might be a good idea too, Rey realized. She actually knew a thing or two about coding, so if Mrs. Organa was interested, she could probably– “Wait, is your name actually Ben?”

Finn was still cracking up, but managed to say “Kyle is his goth name, like a stage name but stupider.”

“It’s not stupid! It’s got a long history with–”

“Oh, if I had a goth name, I think I’d pick Raven.” Poe had already started to walk back to their shop, spreading his arms out like pretentious wings, and Finn moved to join him.

“Babe, you’re already named after one of the most famous gothic writers of all time.”

“Oh yeah. That’s way better than Kyle.”

“If you would just listen, I could explain how–”

“You already got to pick your real name,” Poe continued, done listening to their cold brew competition. “But if you had to pick a goth name–”

“Damien.” Finn said immediately. “Like that character from that indie game you showed me. Vampires say trans rights.”

Poe nodded sagely, like this joke had any meaningful merit to it. “Vampires do say trans rights. Yet another name that is so much better than Kyle.”

Ben aka Kyle aka Kylo flipped them the bird as he walked back to his own shop. Rey stood there a moment longer, eyes following him until he disappeared into the depths of Cryo Coffee. The business card felt heavy in her hands and Rey knew she should rip it apart. If anyone else talked about Resistance like that, she’d physically throw them into the nearest dumpster. She’d done that before with rude customers at the Jakku Street location, even though Mrs. Organa kept asking her not to.

The Takodana Drive location had been peaceful in the few years since Rey was transferred to this team. Poe and Finn always made work fun, but now, a little bit of competition might make things interesting.

She pocketed the card in her apron and went back into her shop. “Hey guys, I think my goth name should be Shadow because it’s, like, the opposite of a sun _ray_?”

Poe was in the middle of adding whip cream onto a customer’s drink, but the cream splattered everywhere as he started to laugh. “I’m so sorry, Ms. Kanata, I’ll make you another one.”

* * *

The official opening of Cryo Coffee was not necessarily as bad as expected, in Rey’s opinion. Like Finn predicted, fancy science coffee brought a younger demographic. The fact that Hux even mentioned the concept of mobile orders must imply that they had a significant social media presence.

However, it was clear that Hux was funding this operation and _just_ funding this operation. Cryo was understaffed, so their massive influx of customers didn’t matter when there was literally a line out the door. It was impressive to look at, but in the middle of summer, no one wanted to wait outside for a coffee.

Rey and Poe were the baristas of Resistance and neither of them were particularly inclined towards making cold drinks. That wasn’t about to stop them though.

“Free samples!” Rey shouted, BB barking around her feet. The iced coffee they’d prepared was not Resistance standard, but people seemed interested enough in an adorable corgi to ignore that. And enough of them seemed interested in abandoning the Cryo line for the faster service next door.

Ben had been so swamped that first day that he hadn’t even noticed. But the second day, when Poe was out with the sample tray and Rey was in the shop, the look he gave her through the glass was colder than the drinks she was making.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He’d stormed out of his shop on the third day, cornering Rey with her tray.

“Don’t you have customers to tend to?” She gestured to the line and handed out a drink in the same motion. He didn’t hesitate to slap the paper cup of ice and caffeine to the ground.

“Hey!” someone protested from the line, but for some reason, they felt far away while Rey had her attention on Ben. It wasn’t fear, she knew what fear felt like. She knew the feeling of eye contact with a predator and keeping track of their movement to stay alive; no number of years on her own could make her forget that feeling she grew up with.

This was something different. This time, she wondered if she was the predator, watching a rabbit try to kick her in the face as it made an escape.

“I do have customers to tend to. Customers you are stealing from me.”

She shrugged. “They’re not in your fancy shop, so I don’t think this counts as stealing.”

“So you think it’s fancy.”

Oh, she probably wasn’t supposed to compliment the enemy. “Doesn’t mean your coffee is any good. You see this?” She held up another little paper cup. “Our free samples are better than your overpriced sci-fi that’s served unsustainable plastic.”

“This place doesn’t have reusable cups?” Another person in line asked. Rey gave her an over-exaggerated frown.

“Isn’t that tragic? Don’t worry, Resistance uses recyclable products in all steps of our process. Plus our reusable travel mugs are really cute.”

“Oh, thanks for the head’s up!” The former Cryo customer said, as she left the line to head next door.

“Stop that!” Ben growled and Rey just grinned at him, holding the little paper cup a little higher.

“Come on, I know you want to try it. Trade secrets, right? Learn why we’re better than you.”

Even as he snatched the cup, he was still glowering. How he could make that face and drink at the same time was honestly impressive to Rey. “You’re not better than–” But the snide comment stopped as Ben seemed distracted by the drink he’d rushed to swallow. “Can I get another one of those?”

“Next door for $2.99, sure.”

“They’re only three bucks? I paid twice that for this nitro brew!” The man who’d just left Cryo frowned at his drink, before looking longingly to Resistance.

“Well sir, you can always buy another. No such thing as too much coffee, right?” Rey knew that was untrue, of course, if her first week working for Resistance and overindulging in the ‘free coffee for employees’ perk had taught her anything. Then again, she couldn’t really remember most of that week after the fourth cup, so maybe it probably didn’t count as a lie if she couldn’t remember.

“Go back to your side!” Ben shouted. Rey’s tray was empty anyway, so she was going back regardless.

* * *

There were fewer lines as the weeks progressed, but Cryo Coffee was clearly seeing success. Which, in Rey’s opinion, shouldn’t be possible since it seemed like Ben spent just as much time staring at her as he did preparing drinks. She was starting to run out of rude faces to make at him through the glass.

On a slow afternoon, Ms. Kanata was Rey’s only customer. The little old lady was anything but a stereotype. She probably knew more about the expensive phone in her hand than Rey did, and she certainly was more up to date on the latest memes. Age, of course, was never a fact in the wonder that could be earned with a little showmanship, and on slow afternoons, Ms. Kanata was Rey’s favorite type of audience.

“Hold on, do that one again!” She requested, pulling out her phone. It would probably end up on tiktok.

“Of course, Ms. Kanata. You’re always the Resistance’s favorite customer.” A little bit of viral marketing never hurt, Rey figured, as she flipped the whipped cream can behind her back, catching it with her opposite hand and applying the contents liberally to the drink in front of her.

It was lucky that the camera had stopped recording, Ms. Kanata too occupied with enjoying her drink, because the face Rey made would not have been helpful for viral marketing. Across the glass, Ben was staring right at her as he flipped a whipped cream can behind his back. A perfect mirror of what she’d just done. When he finished decorating the drink in front of him, he just kept staring at her.

“If you want a show, Kylo, I’ll give you a show.”

He cupped a hand around his ear, but the grin on his face made it clear he could read her lips. Ms. Kanata had left and there was no one in the Cyro shop, so Rey dove under the counter to grab every unnecessary coffee confection she could find. She squeezed caramel sauce into a perfect spiral a foot above a cone of coffee foam. Ben returned with a floating creamer trick that Rey didn’t fully understand the physics of, but she hadn’t been this excited to learn something since she started training under Ms. Organa all those years ago.

She was flipping cans and mugs and spraying sprinkles in a dance only the two of them could understand, while Ben did just the same, ice and smoke filling his side of the glass. It was beautiful and the sweat that dripped down Rey’s brow from the sheer force of it all made her feel alive in a way that coffee should always make her feel.

“BB no!” Poe shouted, grabbing his corgi by the collar, holding her back from dashing forward and licking up the most recent drizzle of chocolate that was collateral damage from this whole project. “Rey, are you okay? Was there an earthquake?”

“The Kylo guy didn’t come in here and rough things up, did he?” Finn said, poking at a very delicate tower of mugs. “If we get him arrested, we probably won't have to worry about the competition.”

“Uh,” There had to be a good excuse for this, ideally one that didn’t get anyone thrown in jail. “I was experimenting.”

“If you start making Jackson Pollocks, I want one for our living room!” Poe had BB in his arms, who barked happily at the idea. A dog couldn’t possibly understand abstract expressionism, but Rey wanted to believe BB was capable of anything.

“Sure? And uh, here, drink this.” She handed a cup to Finn. It looked like a Pollock, a splattering of hazelnut toffee on one half, and peppermint on the other. Finn eyed it skeptically, but took a sip.

“Oh.” He took another sip. Then another.

“Wait, let me have some,” Poe came over, still holding BB tight so she didn’t wriggle free, and Finn tipped the edge of the mug against his lips. “Woah. Rey, this is amazing.”

She grinned. “Yup, I was creating that. Great name, by the way. Think we can put the Pollock Pour on the specials menu next week?”

“I have to check with Ms. Organa, but when she tastes this, she’s going to want it on every Resistance special menu in the galaxy.” Finn took another long sip.

Poe laughed. “Oh man, I wish we could have a coffee shop on the moon. That’d be so fun.”

* * *

When the Pollock Pour ended up on their chalkboard, the Cryo Coffee brew of the week was called Krasner. Rey was only made aware of this as she went to her car after her shift, finding Ben leaning against the hood. He wasn’t wearing all black today. His socks were navy blue.

“If you’re here to rob me, I should probably tell you that I’m broke.”

“So you’re saying it’d be more lucrative to kidnap you?”

She tilted her head. It was a stupid question, one she shouldn’t be considering with the morbid humor that Poe and Finn had infected her with. It should be creepy coming from a goth guy in a parking lot. But after seeing Ben splatter himself with whipped cream twice during their little battle, Rey was hard pressed to find him creepy.

“Yeah, probably. Ms. Organa’s loaded, so she could pay my ransom.”

“Your boss likes you that much?”

It was hard to put into words. Yes, Ms. Organa was her boss, was the owner of the entire Resistance franchise. But it was more than a franchise; it was a family. Poe and Finn were coworkers, but they were also her best friends. This barista gig was just that, a gig, something she was supposed to do part time while striving for something more. But somehow, it became her passion and now Rey couldn’t imagine herself doing some nine to five that wasn’t making drinkable art with her family.

“Yeah, she really does.”

“Weird. I’m pretty sure Hux would sell me to Satan for a cornchip.”

That startled a laugh out of Rey. “Well, if you’d like to work for a coffee shop that’ll really understand your potential…”

And now Ben was laughing with her. “My loyalties are far too rigid for your temptations, Rey. Speaking of,” he held a plastic cup out to her. “Can I tempt you to try this?”

“If you’re drugging me for ransom, can you let Ms. Organa know I’m going to miss the team meeting tomorrow?”

He nodded. His smile was rare, but it made something warm like hot chocolate spill through Rey’s veins. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”

The drink, unlike most at Cryo, had a visual element. Like her Pollock, this one had a sharp red of peppermint and a lighter hazelnut tone in with the coffee. Instead of splattered, they were layered in the glass, in a pattern that Rey would have to try next time she had the shop to herself.

And drinking it was also unlike everything she’d read on the reviews of Cryo. It had caffeine, yes, but that wasn’t the function of the drink. It wasn’t four shots of espresso in a three shot glass. It felt like a remix of her own drink, sharper in some ways, and deeper in others.

“This is…” She glanced around, then shot Ben a lukewarm glare. “You’re not wearing a wire, are you?”

He laughed again. “No, but you don’t have to tell me it was good. Your face told me everything.”

Ben’s smirk wasn’t like his smile. It didn’t make Rey feel warm like comfort on a winter’s night. It made her feel hot, but focused, like the second before her hands touched the water when diving into a pool on a July afternoon. It made her want something. His smirk was all edges, but they weren’t sharp, just something to press against. She wanted to press herself against that smirk and make him think about her every time his lips moved.

She didn’t know how long she’d stood there staring, but Rey really hoped her face didn’t tell him _everything_. “I’m going to go home now, and we’re going to pretend this never happened.”

“Sounds good. See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow.” Her hands were shaking as she unlocked her car and it took her half of the drive home to realize it wasn’t caffeine jitters.

* * *

Rey was late to her shift the next morning, but Ben was not. He had never set foot in Resistance, but it was different than just looking at it through the glass. It was warm, but not smothering. Open. It felt like he didn’t need coffee, nothing in the establishment demanded anything of him, but the smell of rich ground beans made him want coffee. Resistance would give him anything he wanted, if he just asked politely enough.

And then there was a dog barking at him. “You have an animal in an establishment that sells food?”

Poe jumped over the counter to cover his corgi’s ears. “Don’t listen to the bad man, BB. You’re not an animal. You’re a companion.” He gave her a kiss and she yipped happily before licking his cheek and running off to another part of the shop.

“No seriously, I think that’s a health code violation.”

“We keep her out of the kitchen,” Finn said, crossing his arms over his chest. It was less intimidating with his oven mitts still on. “Why are you in our shop, Kylo.”

“Is Rey here?”

“It’s not our policy to disclose employee schedules.” Finn slipped out from behind the counter, standing next to Poe. They had been annoying, the first few times Ben ran into them, but the way they stood together was always meaningful. It was like they were ready to go into battle for each other, rather than just run a cafe together.

“Why are you looking for Rey?” Poe asked.

And wouldn’t it be great if Ben had an answer to that question. “Just tell her I want to talk to her.”

Poe sneered and Ben could practically feel the power trip the other man was having. “Nah, don’t wanna.”

Finn gave a fake pout, but it felt just as power drunk. “Yeah, sorry Kylo.”

“It’s Kyle.”

“Ben!” Rey swept into the shop and BB started barking again. “Wait, Ben.” Her smile faded and Ben regretted coming over here, even if he still wasn’t sure why he had. “What are you doing here?”

“Here.” Another great question that he needed some sort of answer for. “Is where you declared we are to continue our battle.”

“Battle?” Poe failed to choke down a laugh.

“I did?”

“Yes.” He shot her a look that was as close to begging as someone like him was capable of. “You did.”

“Oh!” He did not like the flicker of mischief that dashed through her dark roast eyes. “Yes. You and me. Latte art. Right now.” She was grabbing the collar of his apron, dragging him behind the Resistance counter.

“What?” Ben wasn’t sure why he’d come over here, but he was certain it wasn’t for this. He did not do hot beverages.

“Right now?” Finn gestured to Ms. Kanata, waiting in the queue.

“I mean, I can do her order.”

“You,” Finn hooked a finger around Poe’s apron, “are helping me in the kitchen. Rey is supposed to be running the front.”

“I will!” She slung on her own apron and leaned across the counter to be on eye level with Resistance’s favorite customer. “Ms. Kanata, would you like to judge a little contest for us?”

“I would be honored.” Her grin, highlighted with the wrinkles earned from a lifetime of beautiful smiles, lit up the whole shop.

“She hardly seems unbiased,” Ben grumbled, despite the joy he could feel cloying at the edges of his skin.

“I can have my twitter followers vote on a winner.”

“You can’t argue with twitter, Kylo.”

“Oh please tell me that’s your handle,” Poe said, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. “I want to follow you right now. Finn, bet you twenty bucks he only tweets sad song lyrics.”

“I’m not taking that bet. Losing odds.”

“Speaking of bets,” Ben tried to wrangle the conversation away from his twitter, the handle of which he would not be giving out, and the contents of which may or may not be mostly sad song lyrics. “Rey, this latte art. There’s a winner and a loser, correct? There should be something at stake.”

“There should.” She agreed.

“Uh, no, there should not.” Poe warned. “He’ll probably try to win your soul or something.”

Rey only held up a handle, the shop falling silent save for Ms. Kanata typing to her followers. “If I win…” She paused, purely for dramatics, Ben was sure. “You have to buy a hundred dollar gift card from Resistance.”

“And when I win…” He paused, equally dramatic. “You have to go on a date with me.”

“Rey, it’s not worth it!” Finn shouted, but Rey was already getting mugs down and starting the coffee.

“Oh a date, how terrible.” She started steaming the milk. “I can’t believe goth guy here would be so dastardly.”

“Ya know, the more you’re talking, the more I think–” But Poe was interrupted by Finn’s hand over his mouth.

“Do not finish that sentence, I do not want to live in the reality you are implying.”

“Latte artists!” Ms. Kanata said, phone ready to film. “You have three minutes. Your time starts now!”

Ben was lost in concentration immediately. Latte art was something he’d done, early in his barista training, but he really didn’t do hot drinks anymore. The foam was unruly, it never went where he expected, but there was something tempting about the unpredictability, the feeling of losing control over something that should be his. This creation was rough, it was wild, but it was beautiful. And when Ms. Kanata told them they were out of time, Ben felt calmer than he expected. He placed his mug on the table, revealing rays of sunlight made of milk and his best efforts.

“A sunrise. Very nice, Mr. Goth.” Ms. Kanata gave him a kind smile and Ben did his best to return the expression.

Then she looked at Rey’s work.

“Rey, this is an embarrassment.” Ms. Kanata said, not in the slightest apologetic for speaking the truth.

The second time had started, Rey and plunged the entire cup of milk into the mug, creating a murky mess that didn’t look like anything. Then sat back, like she was a cat with cream rather than a woman with foamed milk splattered onto her cheeks, watching Ben work.

“I know.” The way she smiled at Ben felt like the galaxy had poured him a perfectly steamed cappuccino to enjoy for as long as he possibly could.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't find a rational reason for the name Kylo, and then I stumbled into that incredibly stupid 'goth name' joke and i am zero percent sorry about that.


End file.
